My Grandpa BoBo (term of endearment, I swear) lives on a blueberry farm in Olympia, Washington. Every summer, as kids, we would drive down and spend a day... or two... picking as many blueberries as we could. Grandpa would then weight them - the bigger berries, the better, though! - and pay us for our labor. Of course... all of the smoked salmon, hot peppers, and various blueberry dishes were payment enough for me!
This summer, my husband and I took our 20 month-old son down to the farm with the rest of my family for a supremely glorious late-summer afternoon of berry picking. Not only did we find THE BEST blueberries ever, but we got to catch up with my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, while sharing some of my past with our little guy. It was awesome.
Here is a recipe - adapted as noted - that I found on AllRecipes.com, thanks to my iPhone's "AllRecipes Dinner Spinner" app. I made it last night, and it's already half-gone...
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| Late Summer Blueberry Crumble Bars |
Late Summer Blueberry Crumble Bars Recipe
(Adapted from AllRecipes)
Ingredients:
- 1 cup sugar (plus extra 1/2 cup for blueberries)
- I used 1/2 cup white and 1/2 cup light brown for extra flavor (and 1/4 cup white, 1/4 cup brown for the blueberries)
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 Tbsp. nutmeg
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract (plus 1 tsp. for the blueberries)
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 4 cups fresh blueberries (frozen is fine - it's what I used and prefer, as they hold their shape better)
- 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
- Enough cinnamon sugar for dusting
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9×13 inch pan (I used cooking spray - worked great!).
In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking powder. Use a pastry cutter to blend in the butter, egg and vanilla. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan so that the entire bottom is covered and one, even layer.
In another bowl, stir together the sugar, vanilla, and cornstarch. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer. Dust the crumble with cinnamon sugar.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.
Review:
This was my first ever Crumble! My mom made them every summer when we were kids, so I knew I loved them, but the thought that I could make one of my own never entered my head. This recipe fit in immensely well with my "Eat Seasonally" mantra, and it also was low-egg... something that I have to be careful of with my son's egg allergy. It stays moist, but has a flaky, crumbly top (go figure, right?), and would loan itself to many different fruits. I'm already contemplating a strawberry-chocolate version...
